7-up and vanilla.
I know, I know, just try it.
Ginger Ale with raspberry chocolate chip.
Sunkist orange and vanilla ice cream. Kind of like a dreamscicle.
Vanilla ice cream and Stiegl Radler (grapefruit beer). Wow! Did not expect that to be so damn good.
For the “standard” I like Cream Soda or Root Beer or Coke or …
NO ICE CREAM IN AN EGG CREAM!!!
WHAP WHAP WHAP!
No, seriously, it’s a choklit ice cream soda. I like them too, even though you don’t see ice cream sodas so much any more.
A little whipped cream on top is nice, because you tend to start them with a spoon and finish them with a straw.
Vanilla ice cream and Manhattan Special.
NOW you’re talkin’. Gotta try that.
How would it be with coffee ice cream? Too much of a good thing?
Personally, I think that floats are overrated. I mean, root beer is good, and ice cream is good, and the combination is good, but it really isn’t significantly better than the two separately.
With that said, though, if you’re using something other than a root beer, it’s a soda, not a float. Which is also fine; just don’t call it what it isn’t.
Applebee’s now has Not Your Father’s Root Beer and vanilla ice cream.
I tend to pour soda over my bowl of ice cream which is something like a float, but I wouldn’t choose a float over other ice cream shop choices.
Vanilla ice cream and orange pop.
Might be good. I’ve never tried it. I do love coffee ice cream – it’s pretty much my favorite flavor – but for the floats I like a bit of contrast.
Right …
Nah, I’ve heard of Coca Cola over vanilla called a “coke float.” And the Boston Cooler from my above post was called a “float for sophisticates” by pop culture writers Jane & Michael Stern.
My take: Any kind of ice cream, sherbet, gelato, etc., in a tall glass, covered with some sort of carbonated sweetened flavored water, is a FLOAT.
Ice cream (etc) in a tall glass, liberally covered with flavored syrup, topped to the brim with unflavored soda water, whipped cream and maybe a cherry on top, served with spoon AND straw, is an ICE CREAM SODA.
The point of an ICE CREAM SODA is to eat the syrup and ice cream with the spoon, and as it melts into to soda water, to stir it together and finish it with the straw.
If you’re going to be a purist so am I. Therefore I’ll point out that one of the key ingredients in a chocolate ice cream soda is chocolate ice cream.
That said, I do mostly side with you on the float vs soda issue. A float is some kind of regular soda (root beer, cola, Mt Dew, orange) with some scoops of ice cream added to it. An ice cream soda is plain carbonated water with flavored syrup and scoops of ice cream added.
This may be the first time I’ve ever disagreed with you here.
Let me start by saying that the combination of vanilla and chocolate (each magnificent alone) in a single glass or dish could be proof of the existence of a benevolent god.
I would call an ice cream soda with chocolate ice cream and chocolate syrup a Double Chocolate Ice Cream Soda. This would hold down the other end of the spectrum from a Vanilla Ice Cream Soda, which would be vanilla ice cream with vanilla syrup. In the middle would be a Chocolate Ice Cream Soda, with vanilla ice cream and chocolate syrup.
If you ask the obvious question about chocolate ice cream paired with vanilla syrup…no. Just don’t.
Do you consider a chocolate milkshake to be chocolate ice cream plus milk and chocolate syrup? I make mine with vanilla ice cream, although I’ve heard some people call that a “Black and White.”
An egg cream doesn’t contain any kind of cream (or egg, for that matter).
Anyway . . . on a really hot day, try pineapple sherbet and Vernor’s. Cool.
Lime soda and vanilla ice cream. NOT 7-up, not lemon-lime soda.
I realize that there are many people that feel this way. But I remain a purist on this issue.
Vanilla ice cream should not be treated as a base. Vanilla is a flavor in its own right. Adding chocolate syrup to vanilla ice cream and calling the result chocolate is wrong. If you added caramel syrup to banana ice cream, would you call the result caramel? No. If you mix two flavors together the result is a mixture; chocolate/vanilla or caramel/banana.
If you want a chocolate ice cream soda, it needs chocolate ice cream and chocolate syrup.
But I think this is more a matter of marketing than an actual requirement. The difference between milk and cream is just a few percentage points of butterfat. You can make an egg cream with milk or cream and it’s pretty much going to taste the same - but it sounds cool if you say “there’s no egg and no cream in an egg cream!”
Now your talkin’. They make it right at the stand.